Recap: Cavs 80, Bucks 97 (Or Cavalier first looks in the home of the Charge)

So the Cavs played their first televised game of the season… In the Hall of Fame City.

In preseason, no one wins.

The city of Canton acquitted itself well with a near sellout in pre-season, and it was a beautiful 60 degree fall evening in the hometown of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ D-League affiliate, The Canton Charge. I took my daughter to her first Cavs game. Jackson High School’s Jacks and Jills choir sang the national anthem, and the boys in tuxes and the girls in gowns sat in my section and made it the social event of the season. I covered my daughter’s ears a lot.

There are no luxury boxes in Canton, and the Cavaliers Brain Trust was courtside, down with us littles, to take in the spectacle. They looked as bored as me by the late third quarter.

The Cavs Brain trust hard at work.

We were all reminded of why we love pre-season basketball for 7 minutes, and hate it for the next month. Cavs starters played well through most of the first half, though sloppy towards its end. Then the second half was a mess full of turnovers and bad bad offense, especially after the starters left. Midway through the 4th, the Cavs subs gave a token effort at coming back and did not succeed. My daughter was groaning to leave and I finally caved with a minute left. Let me know if I missed anything.

Highlights:

The best play in the game came early. Miles stole the ball on an entry pass, threw it ahead to Kyrie, who waited till the perfect moment to return it with a behind the back bounce pass right before getting fouled, leading to a Miles slam, and a freethrow for Kyrie.

CJ Miles looked every bit a starting NBA player with a really nice line: 22 minutes, 18 points, 4/7 from 3, 3 boards, 3 steals, and no turnovers. His three point shooting was impressive, especially because they came from the wing and the top of the key. He definitely had a nice matchup against Tobias Harris and the undersized Monta Ellis, and he took advantage of it. His movement without the ball was excellent. I’m hoping he was a steal.

Miles Jams after a sweet cut off the high post. Rub screen and feed courtesy of Wild Thing.

Jon Leuer is a keeper, despite his game low -10 plus/minus, which was more a reflection of his many minutes on the floor without Kyrie. A 3/3 first quarter kept the Cavs in the game early, and he seemed to know where to be on the floor all the time. He had a couple decent moments putting the ball on the floor off the pump fake, and has a nice handle for a 6’ 10” power forward. His defensive rotations were solid, though he picked up some fouls that he shouldn’t have, and needs to work on keeping his arms straight up when he’s going after a shot. His six D-boards were the result of good positioning and strength. Given that defensive rebounding was a weakness of his last year, it was nice to see.

Kyrie was Kyrie. It looked like he played a pedestrian game, until I looked at the box score: 16, 5 boards, and 3 dimes on 5/11 and 6/7 from the line in 22 minutes. Sloppy with the ball, all 3 of his turnovers were due to dribbling errors. You know a guy’s elite when his ho-hum games beat everyone else’s best.

A fan aproves of Tristan's offseason weight gain.

Aside from his funny bits on “Access Cavaliers,” TT was forgettable, but he definitely looks thicker. 7 boards and 1-5 and 2 blocks, but defensively, he got burned by Ilyasova a couple times, and gave up some buckets that were way too easy, but his board work was nice. With a bigger bum and broader shoulders, he should definitely pick up more D-boards.

Andy looks the same, and it was nice to see him scrapping with Drew Gooden who looks ready to braid his goatee into another Johnny. Despite rumors of Andy having “lost a step,” he looks the same to me, and when the games start I think he’ll be fine.

For Milwaukee, 3rd year power forward Larry Sanders was beastly on the boards and around the basket. He had several memorable putbacks. Tobias Harris looked solid, though his defense on Miles wasn’t very good. Dunleavy and Marquis Daniels give Milwaukee a couple of very solid options off the bench. Between them, Gooden, and Mbah a Moute, they can easily go ten deep. They look hard to get past for the playoff race in the East.

Kelenna Azubuike looked like an NBA player, and didn’t seem to be showing any ill effects of the knee injury that kept him out of the last two seasons. He scored with nice elevation on pull up bank shot and jumped pretty high for few high rebounds to go along with a 6 point first half.

(left to right) Justin Holiday, Michael Eric, & Kevin Jones

Justin Holiday played some decent defense, hit a nice shot, made a nice dish, and looked like he was worthy of more run. He certainly played exactly like the book on him: defensive wing stopper with a passable 3 point game and a good midrange game. But we already have an Alonzo Gee. Speaking of…

Lowlights:

Alonzo Gee’s line in 2 games: 39 minutes, 6 points. That is not getting it done for a starting guard. He doesn’t seem to be looking for his shot at all, and why he’s not getting post up looks (or even trying to) against Monta Ellis is either a coaching error or a player error.

Dion Waiters did not look good, and that’s being nice. His one field goal was on a sweet alley oop feed from Miles that he almost blew. On the ball, Saint Weirdo was 0-6 and his 4 turnovers were ugly. His 2nd quarter contested 3 with 20 seconds left on the clock was the kind of play that loses games. Such is the life of a rookie.

The options at the backup guard spot in general don’t look good. The offense fell apart when Kyrie wasn’t on the floor, and there seemed to be a general inability to feed the bigs at all, or get any shots off the ball when Pargo, Waiters, or Anderson were running the point. 38.5% field goal percentage for the game was evidence of this. By the end of the game, Eddie Gill was pressing every guard in the back court, and the good guys couldn’t get into their offense at all. I guess it’s Sloan’s turn again.

Tyler Zeller looked like a rookie: some decent plays, some bad ones, but he really looks like he’s lost out there sometimes, and that he needs to add some weight. The second half was underwhelming for him.

Boobie had some shooting woes and missed several wide open looks.

Milwaukee’s guards combined for 55 points. Tobias Harris had 11. To say that the on the ball defense, screen defense, and perimeter rotations were bad would be polite.

Benoh Udrih took a nasty fall in the 2nd off of a Pargo charge, and probably got a concussion. Hope he’s ok.

Nolights:

No Lukes, Smardo, Sloan, or Casspi. DNPs happen on a 20 man roster.

Michael Eric is very tall. Kevin Anderson is not. That is all I could discern from watching them.

Kevin Jones has an NBA body with a decent frame and some long arms despite being 6’7”. He also pitched an o-fer: no stats in 5 minutes.

I counted four turnovers coming out of timeouts or to begin quarters. No es bueno.

There's a lot to love here.

This is of course one game: over-analyzed because it’s the first time we’ve seen these guys since summer league and tankapalooza 2012. It is a ridiculous word count for a preseason game recap. But it’s been eight months since we’ve seen real basketball, and we’ve another month to go. We are hungry. Boxes of “Your Pizza” will not satisfy us (they had no DiGiornos at the Memorial Civic center). Until then it’s pre-season. We must find succor in the first five minutes of games, watch “Access Cavaliers,” play NBA 2K13, and pine for the days when third string point guards Do Not Play.

16 Responses to “Recap: Cavs 80, Bucks 97 (Or Cavalier first looks in the home of the Charge)”

I watched most of the first half with my sons, my oldest being a relatively stout Cavs fan, for being a 6-yr old and he got tired of watching it about 10 minutes in and decided Pokemon was more captivating after Kyrie and “the guy with the poofy hair” came out.

What I saw in the first half was tolerable, and I certainly hope Gee turns around his efforts. He looked lost on defense and incapable on offense. I truly hope I was not right when I said everyone was crazy to want to give him $4M per year so Phoenix (who didn’t even offer him anything) wouldn’t steal him from us. I hope I am wrong, but I still think he is overpaid. Did everyone else see that in Gee last night, or am I just a hater?

I have to say that I agree with my son that it was tough to watch after Kyrie and Andy left in the 1st… They (and surprise, surprise) CJ Miles were the only players with any highlights in my opinion. I liked the CJ Miles pickup and the Azibuke throw-in, but I’m not expecting regular double-digit games out of either. However, I was impressed with both last night.

If you watched the pregame show and halftime, they showed an interview that some guy did with Kyrie, TT, Varejao and PARGO all together. Not sure what this might imply, if anything. Pargo, Sloan and Anderson are pretty interchangeable so you might as well hang out the guy with guaranteed money.

Definitely need to reiterate how good CJ looks. I think he’s that second scorer we need next to Kyrie. I know you already mentioned he went 4-7 from 3pt, but one of those was an end-of-shot-clock forced shot that he probably wouldn’t have otherwise taken. He had a few good drives to the basket too. If he keeps this up, then he will be a huge steal.

Gee does not look like he’s worth 3 years/10 million.

Has Michael Eric played basketball before? I know they said he’s a project, but geeeeez. The only good thing I saw was his one rebound. He’s 6’11” with huge arms and very athletic so when he jumped up to get it, it looked like he went half way to the roof. But with Slamardo and Leuer having great showings, I think he’s out the door. Along with Kevin Jones.

And you also forgot to mention TT’s big play where he had a huge block on Dalembert then proceeded to run the floor and get the dunk on the other end. Probably the second best play of the game. I liked what I saw from TT. He’s not great yet, but you can tell he is improving.

I did not watch it, but looking at the box score and reading a few recaps, I am officially nervous for the Dion Waiters era. I know, I know, summer ball and 1 preseason game cannot even be considered a ‘sample size’, but shouldn’t we have at least seen something (1 impressive drive, a nifty and-1 etc) to make us dream of things to come? Further, I read Scott pulled him due to lack of focus???

I sure hope I am wrong, but I am heading into this season expecting the worst from him. Prove me wrong Dion.

In a little less than three minutes, during the last five minutes of the Monday night game, Waiters scored 9 points and had 1 assist. The Cavs scored on 5 of 6 possessions during that time and Waiters was involved in all 5 scores.

That’s at least something, right? He’s a rookie. It won’t always be pretty, but I think he will be allright.

I really think I’m crazy sometimes cuz I will read a summary of a game and think “that’s not what I saw.” But perhaps it is my wine-colored glasses…I mean, Azibuke looked like he could barely jump!

Anyway, I thought TT was really good defensively last night. And as Nate Smith says, get him the ball in scoring areas! I thought Miles looked good. I’m gonna toot my own horn a bit cuz I suggested on another forum 2 years ago that Miles was a guy the Cavs should look to sign as a guy who was low-risk and high reward. Remind me of this in Feb when he’s shooting 38%! Haha!

I could go on and on but the main thing is that we are so young and so filled with new players that we are gonna look like a hot mess for the next coupe of months. But it is pre-season. Remember how GOOD we looked in pre-season during Byron’s first year? Yeah, just remember that while watching this pre-season unfold. Oh and I told ya Boobie looks useless…

Quit with the “they’re just rookies” talk. Those guys (especially Thompson) are just godawful. Thompson belongs nowhere near a basketball court and Waiters and Zeller should have been drafted in the second round AT BEST. Great, Waiters scored 9 points in three minutes. Whoop-de-frickin-doo. Everyone is laughing at the Cavs. Read some Bill Simmons or DDL son, then you’ll see how bad these guys are.

As Derek sits in his basement alone, creates an account on a Cavs forum, bashes the team to make himself feel better about him losing his girlfriend to a guy/guys from Cleveland. I do apologize Dereck for your situation in feeling inadequate in your personal life, leading to you trolling other’s sites to which you obviously do not belong. I am not from Cleveland and do not understand your hatred towards the Cavs and their front office.
Should the Cavs have drafted Jonas(who by all accounts would have not come over had that happened with any team other than the Raptors)? That seems like not the best idea, to waste a draft pick….
Harrison Barnes… Haven’t seen him lighting anything up. Getting a few points, missing 3s, and def not grabbing any boards or handing out assists…. So….
Sullinger. Yeah, just about every team missed out on him, so I am not sure why the Cavs get the blame for passing on him.
TT and Zeller are a double-double waiting to happen every night. I don’t expect that out of Barnes since he only shoots. Fits right into Golden State though, since that is their game play.
Jonas, he really showed his skills in the Olympics. If that is any judge of how his NBA career will go, I think there will be a lot of people with excuses for him for a long time.

So Derek, it has been fun trying to explore the mind of a lowly troll. I am sure you will have a lot more uneducated answers to why the Cavs suck. GO CAVS

Well, 2points for Jonas in 13 minutes of action. Wonder what troll Derek and the other good-faith Jonas guys think of that? The story was Drummond. 12 points, 7 boards and a couple of swats. I liked the Dion pick but I liked Drummond too. A lot. But I’m sticking with Dion. Like I have a choice!

Yeah I watched the game last night. JV didn’t look great or terrible, just meh. He’ll probably get better with time but I’m happy with TT right now. But…

Drummond was highlight central last night. He’s going to be great. We’ll probably regret passing on him. He just gets things done because he’s so big and long. Detroit is going to have a great team for years to come. They’ve had excellent players fall to them the past few years with Monroe, Knight and Drummond.

Ha! You’re all funny. Boo-hoo, this guy said something we didn’t like so we’ll call him a troll. Oh well, Valanciunas had one “meh” game. Guy is going to be a beast. As for Barnes, you’re going to see some great stuff out of him, just like in college. Waiters really showed nothing special in college and now is showing nothing special in the NBA. Big surprise. TT has never been called soft, but he has been called “unskilled” and “looks horrid with the ball in his hands.” As for not picking Sullinger, the Cavs had a chance when they picked Zeller. So instead of grabbing a guy who COULD be a double double machine this year, they grab a white guy who at best is a backup center. Awesome.

Get over yourselves Cavs fans. Even John Krolik mocks this team over at DDL.

The Lineup: (Click for Author’s Archive)

Nate Smith is an Associate Editor. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and moved to NE Ohio in 2000. He adopted the Cavs in 2003 and graduated from Kent State in 2009 with a BA in English. He can be contacted at oldseaminer@gmail.com or @oldseaminer on Twitter.

Tom Pestak is an Associate Editor. He's from the west side of Cleveland and lives and (mostly) dies by the success and (mostly) failures of his beloved teams. You can watch his fanaticism during Cavs games @tompestak.

Robert Attenweiler is a Staff Writer. Originally from OH, he's long made his home in NYC where he writes plays and screenplays (www.disgracedproductions.com) some of which end up being about Ohio, basketball or both. He has also written for The Classical and the blog Raising the Cadavalier. You can contact him at rattenweiler@gmail.com or @cadavalier.

Benjamin Werth is a Staff Writer. He was born in Cleveland and raised in Mentor, OH. He now lives in Germany where he is an opera singer and actor. He can be reached at blfwerth@gmail.com.

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John Krolik is the Editor Emeritus of Cavs: The Blog. At present, he is pursuing a law degree at Tulane University. You can contact him at johnkrolik@gmail.com or @johnkrolik.

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